I was just watching an episode of Deception where they had yet another made up country name for a Slavic country. We also get fake country names for African countries(Wakanda), Arab countries, and Latin American countries. Mainly because there are so many, you get a pattern you can draw from.
But what if they wanted to do a random Jewish country and didn’t want to use Israel? What would be a good made up name for a Jewish country? How about a fake Scandinavian country? I’ve never heard of a fake East Asian country either on TV or movies. How about if you wanted to use a fictional, peaceful, wealthy Western country much like Canada, but didn’t want to say, “Canada”?
Basically, this is a thread to come up with fictional country names for regions that don’t usually get that treatment. Because it’s funny.
The main reason made-up countries are in Eastern Europe, middle Asia or Africa is that most Americans don’t know those areas very well, as opposed to Western Europe. That said…
The nation of Kazakhstan complained about their portrayal in the movie Borat, to which many Americans replied “What? That was a real country? C’mon, seriously?”
I often include fictional cities in maps I draw, so I’ve had a lot of fun parodying the place-naming conventions in Råndöm Skândi-Høøøøvian and Khimeristankh towns.
Can make communist countries by layering on the euphemisms: The Democratic Free People’s Republic of X. Add in “Benevolent” if you want to sound East Asian.
Far North on the subcontinent we find the region of Scamdinavia, consisting of Boorway, Bewden, Benmark and Samland. The latter is not considered part of Scamdinavia by the other three, but the term has been adopted into English in the wider sense.
Or you can use some of the many Norse petty kingdoms. Scania, Upland, Geatland, Vaermland, Vingulmark, etc.
When I saw the thread title, I was all prepared to talk about my DJ days and how I worked with such great names as Rusty Gates and Bill Ditt at “98.9FM, the home of Country”. My name was a boring combo (first + middle + “s”) but some of the folks had awesomely creative Country names.
Now that I see my supposition was in error, I’ll contribute Tijata, an island south of Honduras that is a virtual paradise thanks to the questionably benevolent rule of General Garcia.
You’re not going to find country names “like Canada” or “like Israel”, because you’re trying to extrapolate from one data point. The way these things work is, you start with some set of real names, and look at what they have in common. Thus, for instance, if you want a fake central Asian country, you can note that most countries in that part of the world end in -stan, and that a lot of them have a K somewhere before that, and so on, and end up with something like “Hakisakistan”. But if your starting set of countries is just {Canada}, then you find that all of the names are six letters long, and all of them end in “nada”, and all of them start with “Ca”, and you end up with your new name being “Canada”.
On the other hand, you can come up with new states, or provinces, or the like, because there are a number of those to work from. Hence, for example, the Simpsons’ home state of North Tacoma.
Some of the fakes have regional customary tropes to them. Fake Central American country the super easy way is pick a Spanish Saint’s name, San X, Santa Y (though it’s their cities, not countries, that are named so). For a West Indian one, an English or French “Saint ___”. Central Asian of course become Gibberish-stan, Central/Eastern Europe are Madeupslavia, Whateverovia and Somethingeria or -aria
The Great Dictator* (1942) - Tomania and rival country, Bacteria
Perhaps most impressive is State Secret, a.k.a. *The Great Manhunt *(1950)
“The film is set in the mythical country of “Vosnia”, which, according to director Sidney Gilliat, was meant to suggest either Spain (to left-wingers) or what was then Yugoslavia (to right-wingers). A special “Vosnian” language was devised for the film by Georgina Shield, a teacher at the London School of Languages, and several of the actors took lessons in how to speak it over a period of several days, as it is extensively heard in the film.” - from IMDB
